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Monday, 3 August 2015

Malaya Black & White | Wit's End (M18)

Register:witsend.peatix.com*Film is M18. Patrons under 18 will not be permitted entry. Age check will be conducted at the door; please bring a valid photo ID for verification purposes.

Sporadically released to US drive-ins and grindhouses in the mid-70s and then retitled G.I Executioner by Troma in the ‘80s, when it became something of a VHS hit, this bizarre independent film was actually shot in Singapore in December 1969. It’s based on a story by American war correspondents (Ian Ward and Keith Lorenz) hoping for an update of Casablanca for the Vietnam-era. Instead, in the hands of notorious purveyor of perverse schlock, Joel M. Reed, it’s a dire mish-mash of spy movie cliches, Ed Wood-level performances and shameless sexploitation, with a strain of homophobia that reaches hysterical levels. A demented ‘bad movie’ masterpiece and an extraordinary portrait of a city desperate to be in the movies. You have been warned!

This screening is part of the 'Beyond Saint Jack' segment under the NUS Museum's Malaya Black & White film series.

About ‘Beyond Saint Jack’ - The strange cinematic visitors of Singapore and MalayaSingapore/Malaya’s heyday of foreign production from the mid 1960s to the early 1980s led to a motley filmography of B-movies, commercial disasters, miscellaneous TV episodes, lost films and bizarre curios. While they resist canonisation, these films are a fascinating portal into how the region was perceived by the rest of the world both before and after the end of the colonial era; and the eagerness for Singapore and Malaysia to be represented and acknowledged by the West. A recurring motif of their narratives is the Western visitor in Singapore. This season of 10 films showcases the predecessors and descendants of Saint Jack (1979): old hands, good men, legal aliens, rugged individualists, ex-soldiers, detectives, has-beens and rock stars. Characters who have found themselves ensnared in traps beyond their control, stumbled across exotic, bewildering cultures, or entered zones of erotic possibility.Beyond Saint Jack is guest-curated by author and critic Ben Slater, who will be present to introduce and discuss each film.About Ben SlaterBen Slater is the author of Kinda Hot: The Making of Saint Jack in Singapore (2006), a major contributor to World Film Locations: Singapore (2014) and the editor of 25: Histories and Memories of the Singapore International Film Festival (2014). He’s also the co-screenwriter of the feature film Camera (2014) and a Lecturer at the School of Art, Media and Design, Nanyang Technological University.To find out more about the Malaya Black & White project, please go tohttps://malayablackandwhite.wordpress.com/